Advancing the story of Mandy Patinkin's unexplained absence from yesterday's table read for CBS procedural Criminal Minds [Ed.note—Is that the one with David Caruso and the sunglasses or the one with Vincent D'Onofrio and the perverts? Have an intern look that up.] broken on E!'s Watch with Kristin blog, TVGuide.com's Ausiello Report says that the show's producers are retaliating by writing the actor out of their episode:

Multiple sources confirm that Mandy Patinkin is being written out of the season premiere of Criminal Minds after he failed to report to work.

Reps for the show declined comment, but it's safe to assume that the actor/chanteuse is embroiled in some kind of nasty contract stand-off with the network. (The work stoppage was first reported by the sleuths over at E! Online.)

Coincidentally, Minds' just put out a casting call for a character that fits Patinkin's description. What odd timing, eh?

Indeed, it is odd that CBS is issuing a casting call just as their star has come down with a debilitating case of contractitis; stranger still is that the notice is seeking "a less fucking greedy Mandy Patinkin type, who appreciates how easily replaceable the leading men on second-tier FBI dramas truly are, and who doesn't want to spend the rest of his life signing headshots at Princess Bride conventions."